Promises (Ninjago's Kai x Reader)

Episode 6 - Street Rules

"Focus. In order to bear the fate of Ninjago on your shoulders, you must first learn to bear the weight of all of us," Uncle says, taking a gentle sip of his tea.

I shut my eyes tighter, tightening my core and flexing my glutes. Lloyd is on the ground, doing a one handed hand stand. Zane stands on Lloyd's feet, focusing hard not to fall off. Kai and Jay each sit on one of Zane's arms, each gripping a calf of Cole, who stands precariously on Zane's shoulders. Uncle sits casually on Cole's shoulders, as if he's sitting on a couch, reading the newspaper. I am in a handstand on top of Uncle Wu, gripping the brim of his hat, praying it doesn't fall off.

"Focus," Uncle repeats, taking another sip from his tea.

"Sensei, I'm starting to think this was a bad idea," Jay says.

"Yeah, Sensei. He's just a kid," Cole replies, glancing up at my Uncle.

"In order for him to succeed, we must all trust one another," I grunt, opening my eyes to look down at them.

Lloyd lets out a grunt below me, as our tower shifts. I shut my eyes again, taking a deep breath and flexing my muscles. My eyes fly open again when a dull beeping sound meets my ears. Next thing I know, my body is thrown to the floor, glass and rock littering the ground around me. Kai pulls me to my feet and we walk over to the large hole in the outside wall. Construction workers stand just outside, looking just as perplexed as I feel.

"Woah, Woah, Woah!" Dareth screams as he rushes into the room. "This wasn't supposed to happen until tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Let me see that order," says one of the construction workers, taking a slip of paper from another. "Oh, yeah. My bad. Sorry about that. We'll be back in the morning."

All the construction workers climb onto their trucks and leave. Dareth lets out a groan and bends down to pick up one of his bent trophies.

"Dareth, what is this all about?" Cole asks.

"Well, I fell behind on some of my payments and some developer named Darnagom Enterprises is buying the entire block to put in some stupid frisbee-golf course. They say if I don't come up with 50,000 by tomorrow, the dojo is gone," Dareth explains, a look of anguish painted across his face.

"But we already lost the Bounty. We can't loose the dojo now," Jay exclaims.

Dareth begins to sob. "My trophies. Oh, my fake trophies!"

"Wait a minute. 'Darnagom?'" Zane says, staring intently at the billboard. "When you rearrange the letters, it spells-"

"O Grandma?" Jay says, cocking his head to the side.

I shake my head, glaring at the floor. "No, Garmadon."

"Right. That makes more sense," Jay says with a chuckle.

"Dad is behind this?" Lloyd asks, looking at me with wide eyes.

"If he destroys the dojo, where will we train Lloyd?" Cole wonders aloud.

"Any chance you got 50,000 in that teapot of yours," Dareth asks with a sniffle.

"Worry not, Dareth. You're not in this alone. We're all with you," Uncle says, patting the sobbing man on the back.

"Did someone say 50,000?" says Nya, appearing out of nowhere.

Jay gasps. "You didn't happen to win the lottery?"

Nya shakes her head, a grin plastered on her face. "No, but I heard about Ninjaball Run!"

"Ninjaball Run?" We all repeat.